Part 2 of 3 - The Thief - Alberta
He is making his move!
Is it really gone?
YUP!! and there he goes with the last one!
Hunter – Zendal Carroll
Cameraman – Joe Rush
Have you ever sat in a tree stand when the wind was hollowing so hard you could hardly stand up? Well… that’s how Zendal’s hunt started. Heather and Jason said the bears up there don’t move well in the wind, and of course Zendal was a little discouraged as we strapped our Hunter Safety System harnesses into the platform stand that was waving 2 to 3 feet back and forth!
We were excited though because that morning we had fresh Stealth cam Prowler pictures of a nice boar that Heather wanted us to take. He was known as ‘the thief’ because he would come in, steal the bait bucket, drag it into the woods and eat. The funny thing though, is that the bear would BRING THE BUCKET BACK a couple days later! (I guess he either had a guilty conscience, or he thought this was a buffet line!)
According to our Stealth cam, this boar was on the bait at 7:10pm and stayed around until after 9pm. Zendal and I were strapped to the tree early (as usual) at about 4pm. Once again, the bear decided that he would show up for work late, and we were worried he wouldn’t show at all due to the heavy winds. About 8:30pm I spotted movement through the pines and Zendal and I jumped to attention bow and camera in hand. At this point, Zendal was on his third night of hunting, and we had decided that the first opportunity at this bear would be the end of it! We were also concerned about ‘the thief” using the bait bucket as a ‘to go cup’ and we may not get a shot if he left with the food! (Good news though, Jason pulled the handles off of the buckets so ‘the thief’ had to work a little harder for his ‘meal on wheels’!) He worked his way to the bait like he owned it… without even a pause. Zendal and I sized him up, made sure it was a boar, and waited for the shot.
Finally, the opportunity comes… Zendal draws… and the bear sits down! (We won’t share the explicative Zendal used, but I’ll tell you HE WASN’T HAPPY!) Zendal let down the draw on his Katera XL and patiently waited for another shot… not long, and ‘the thief’ was on his feet and broadside. Zendal stood, full draw, solid as a rock in that heavy wind and squeezed the trigger on his SCOTT Lil’ Goose and sent the arrow on its way. That Beman arrow / scorpion broadhead combo punched the crease on that bear with so much kinetic energy that it punched a hole right into the steel drum that was behind the bear! Like a black lightning bolt the bear tore out of there, right under the stand, then expired within 35 yards of the impact. Zendal looked like a 12 year old kid that had just gotten a new bike (except for the 3 day old 5 o’clock shadow on his face!)
As Zendal and I celebrated our success together, we realized that we had forgotten about our second camera angle that we had set up behind us. It captured EVERYTHING… Zendal shooting, me filming, and the bear too! I think this is a hunt that we will both remember for a long time to come.
Check back for part 3, the final chapter of our hunt with Northern Adventure Hunts in Alberta!